Logos, posters, labels; we are drowning in advertising. Learn how to fight back.
Yell ‘I am not a consumer, I am a free man!’ and see if you can’t beat the advertisers at their own game.
Obviously all advertising isn’t evil as we need some advertising to find out what’s happening in the world. An advertisement for a concert we want to see is the very opposite of evil as it gives us the means to go and have a moving experience. If you are promoting a product or an experience, you need to be able to communicate with your audience to ensure it is a success. I appreciate that and I’m not calling for a ban on all advertising.
The problem is not with an unobtrusive poster or a billboard; it’s with the sneaky ways that advertising tries to get in on every aspect of human endeavour. Sports events are sponsored by companies who flash their logos over everything, including the players. TV advertisements force us to watch if we don’t want to miss the next bit of our TV show. Cinema audiences are forced to sit through adverts instead of just trailers at the cinema now. The advertisers are now even trying desperately to find a way to use the popularity of social networking websites to their advantage.
None of this would be very sinister if it didn’t work. No advertiser would bother us if he thought his adverts were falling on deaf ears. No, the reason advertising has gone crazy is that it works. American economist, Juliet Schor, estimated almost a decade ago that the average American’s annual spend is increased by $200 for every hour of TV (above the national average) he or she watches each week.
Ads make us more stressed because they constantly assault us on subconscious and conscious levels. They are a constant visual ‘noise’ that we simply can’t shut up, no matter how hard we try. Our daily commute is plastered with poster ads and even digital moving ads on buses and some billboards. We are constantly taking in that there are millions of products out there for us to consume. It is spiritually and physically draining.
It is pretty hard to avoid TV ads (though several people I know lead very happy lives without a TV) but there are other ways you can strike back at the corrosive influence of advertising in your life. Try to get rid of branded packs of things in your home. So buy un-branded ceramic containers for things like flour, sugar, coffee, etc. Unfortunately we seem to be swamped with packaging nowadays — very useful for the advertiser who wants to stick their logo right where you can see it as much as possible — and the days of things wrapped in plain paper are long gone. However, you can return to a slower pace of life by getting rid of a lot of packaging and storing things in pretty, air-tight containers.
The next act of anti-advertising you can do is to ensure you tick the right box on forms to avoid direct mail advertising. You know all that junk mail that gets through anyway? How about writing ‘Take me off your mailing list,’ onto their order forms and posting it back to them using the pre-paid envelope they provide. This costs you nothing and should start to get your message across to them. You can also contact the mailing preference service to be removed from the mailing lists companies buy in (www.mpsonline.org.uk). It is now not uncommon for marketing, aka advertising calls, to come to your home on a Sunday. My dad usually yells at them but I saw a brilliant wind-up whereby the person being called pretended he was an inspector at the scene of a crime and that the telemarketer was under suspicion of murder because he called at that number. Probably going a bit far but a good indication of what you can do with a little imagination.
Here’s an idea for you…
Pick out all the labels from your clothes. Not only will they hang better and you’ll have no itching around the neck or back, you will also not have to see a brand name each time you get dressed. You already paid for your clothes; why should you have to give the company free subliminal advertising to you each time you get dressed?
Defining idea…
‘History will see advertising as one of the real evil things of our time. It is stimulating people constantly to want things, want this, want that.’
MALCOLM MUGGERIDGE, journalist and broadcaster
How did it go?
Q I work in advertising — are you calling me evil?
A Yes. OK, no, not really but you must admit that all those brainstorming sessions where you think of more ingenious ways to get people to buy things they don’t need or want are a bit soul-destroying. Surely all that knowledge of human psychology and behaviour could be put to better use? Just a thought.
Q Your suggestions will cost a lot of money that I don’t have and isn’t that just more consumerism?
A My suggestion to get storage for everyday items shouldn’t cost you much if you find your things as bargain buys in car boot sales or charity shops. It can also be huge fun trawling through bits of junk to find your perfect treasure.
Q I get really influenced by make-up and perfume ads. How can I stop the impulse to buy?
A It may be that it’s the beautiful images of the perfect girls that you’re attracted by and not the product itself. After all, don’t you feel disappointed sometimes once you’ve got it home? Try making a scrapbook of image ideas that contain the adverts of those pretty girls but use it as a resource to inspire different looks, achievable with your existing make-up. You can still buy the occasional bit of new product, just be sure to clear out one item of old make-up from your bag to ensure that you’re not just stock-piling.